BIRD CRADLES. 105 
often lay bare the interior? How else the bird could procure the 
material is a mystery. 
The “cat-tail” offers an inexhaustible store of down to the 
later nest-builders. Packed with incredible compactness in its 
cylindrical equilibrium, when once ruptured—the keystone among 
the feathered seeds once removed, as it were—what a revelation! 
The magician’s inexhaustible hat is not a cir- 
cumstance to it. Rolling out in fluffy masses, 
a very effervescence of down, which seems to 
multiply to infinity even after launching in 
the air. Unless my estimate of bird-wisdom 
is much overwrought, it finds its way into 
many a warm nest, even though gleaned from 
the last year’s stalks. 
But it is not alone to the soft seeds of 
plants that the nests are indebted for their 
downy lining. If the home of the yellow 
| warbler is a chef a’euvre 
Aaa what shall be said of this, 
Stee i loli eects tee ee 
the work of the small 
blue-gray gnatcatcher, 
one of the most refined 
art treasures among our 
native nests? It is usu- 
ally hung among the twigs 
of a tree, somewhat like that 
of a vireo, though sometimes placed ee, 
on a branch. The body of the 
nest is closely felted together with THE DANDELION MYSTERY SOLVED, 
14 
